We have discussed the uses of the ordinary clubs - driver, brassey, spoon, cleek, iron, mashie, niblick, and putter - and the methods of play that should be adopted with them. We now turn to the consideration of fancy clubs and of play of a more advanced kind, and some miscellaneous matters. There is an endless variety of patent clubs, and the golfer who is so disposed can fill her bag with all sorts of queer weapons. Some people scorn innovations, others delight in trying every new invention that is put on the market. It would be quite impossible to describe all the patent clubs that have been produced from time to time. We shall only be able to speak of a few which can claim to possess features of real value. From the point of view of general usefulness, the socketless clubs come first. For the enlightenment of the uninitiated, it may be as well to say here that a socketless club has no heel, the shaft rises straight from the head. As we said before, a socketless club is only a palliative, not a cure for socketing, but it is undeniably helpful to possess one of these weapons for times of stress. In the extreme type the shaft has a sort of double twist in the neck. It is hideously ugly, and at first one's pride revolts from the idea of using such a club, but there can be no question as to the effectiveness of a mashie of this pattern. The shot may not always be successful, and the ball may trundle along the ground instead of rising gracefully into the air, but even the most confirmed socketer will find that with such a club socketing is a sheer impossibility. A little coterie of golfers, who are great advocates of this pattern of club, have christened it 'bottle-nose,' but why 'bottle-nose' remains a mystery. The catalogue name is 'smith's Patent Mashie Iron.' A special point of advantage in the use of these clubs for women is that they are particularly good for a long mashie shot, such a shot as would be apt to make the player force with an ordinary mashie. The balls also run freely off them, as the face is not very much laid back.

BACK SWING FOR DRIVE.

MISS V. Hezlet.

[See page 279.].

[To face p. 340.

If the player adopts socketless clubs, she will have a varied choice of mashies and irons. I am inclined to think that with them it is more difficult to get the ball up, but this may be only imagination on my part. So many people use them and find them thoroughly satisfactory, that if the beginner feels any leaning toward them she may indulge her fancy without any hesitation.

Another type of mashie is the one in which the face is deeply scored with horizontal fines. These lines are supposed to put cut on the ball, and with some people such a club seems to work admirably; but one never feels quite sure how much is due to the club and how much to the player's own skill. There is also the mashie with a hole in the face to let the sand go through, and yet another is the one in which the weight is concentrated in the centre of the head. An approaching club that is a great favourite is the one called a 'jigger.' It is generally used for running -up shots. The jigger has a long narrow head and the face is not very much laid back, while the shaft is short and stiff. The method of play with such a club is practically the same as that for a run-up approach with an iron.

Some years ago aluminium clubs came very much into vogue. They were made in several sizes and shapes, so that if the player so pleased she could replace her entire stock of irons with them. Mrs. Cuthell used to use these clubs with deadly effect, and many people preferred them as being easier to manipulate than the ordinary cleek or iron, in the point of picking the ball up from a doubtful lie. They also possessed the great advantage of being unbreakable. Latterly these clubs seem to have gone out of fashion; why, one cannot exactly say. The aluminium clubs most frequently to be seen nowadays are putters and spoons. Mr. Darwin advocates the aluminium putter as the putter which should be first given to the beginner, as he says it is the club which is most likely to make her acquire a smooth and even manner of hitting the ball. The ball runs much more freely off an aluminium putter than off an iron one, and for this reason great care has to be exercised that the ball is hit absolutely truly and cleanly, otherwise it will jump in and out and run round the edges of the hole in the most exasperating manner. Many people use an aluminium putter for long putts, and take an iron putter for short ones, and this seems a very good plan. On very fast greens the iron putter is preferable for all putts.

Before we leave the subject of putters and putting, it may be as well to say a word or two about stymies. No player can be considered a finished golfer who is not able to negotiate the ordinary stymie. Of course, under some conditions a stymie may be practically hopeless, and it is merely a fluke if the player should succeed in overcoming it, but the ordinary stymie is not nearly as great an obstacle as many people seem to imagine. The beginner must always remember that a stymie is not a stymie unless the balls are a greater distance apart from each other than six inches, measured from the nearest points, as if they are within six inches she can have the obtruding ball removed. If she is wise she will have six inches marked off on the shaft of her putter, so that there can be no question when the case arises as to the exact distance.

There are two principal methods of dealing with stymies. One, to loft the ball over the obstruction; the other to screw round it. The first is the more impressive form of play. The successful jumping of a stymie always produces a gasp of admiration from the onlookers, and the player pats herself on the back (metaphorically) and thinks how wonderfully clever she is. When the balls are close together and the hole a reasonable distance away, the shot is quite an easy one. A mashie is the best club to use, and the stroke must be made easily and naturally, not as if a special effort were needed, or as if something extraordinary had to be accomplished. The loft on the club will do the work quite sufficiently without any necessity for trying to put cut on, and the club should be taken back close to the ground, and allowed to follow through very much in the same way as for a putt. The most difficult stymie is the one where the opponent's ball is on the lip of the hole, or a few inches away, and the player's ball a considerable distance off. Occasionally the ball can be pitched right into the hole and made to stay there, but the difficulty of doing this increases by every inch that the ball is further away, and it can only be accomplished by those who are in thorough practice. The shot, too, is one which requires a great deal of nerve.